LAWRENCEVILLE, VA – The Chowan Women's Basketball team remained in first place in the CIAA North with a 60-47 victory over Saint Paul's College Saturday afternoon. The Hawks move to 14-11 overall, 11-6 in the CIAA. Following the loss, the Lady Tigers move to 2-21 overall (1-16 CIAA, 1-9 North).
The two teams played a competitive first half, as neither team held a lead of more than six points. Offense was tough to come by on both ends. For the half, Chowan shot 21.4% from the field, while Saint Paul's connected on 29.6% of their shots. Chowan sophomore
Talaya Lynch was in foul trouble for most of the half, limiting her to only five minutes of playing time.
Chowan was held without a field goal overt the final 4:10 of the half, which allowed Saint Paul's to climb back into the game. The Lady Tigers drained a wide open layup with 13 seconds remaining in the half to close the run. At the intermission, Chowan held a slim 21-20 advantage.
As they have many times this season, Chowan relied on its defense to maintain their second half lead. For the game, the Hawks caused 24 Saint Paul's turnovers. Chowan capitalized off the miscues as well, scoring 24 points off turnovers. Key steals led to several Hawk baskets, and eventually gave them a 17 point advantage with 2:04 left in the game.
Ransheda Jennings led Chowan with 20 points on 7-12 shooting from the floor. She was 5-5 from the charity stripe and had a game high 6 steals.
Talaya Lynch shot 8-10 from the free throw line, leading to 14 points.
Danielle Coleman pulled down a team-high seven rebounds despite being in foul trouble for most of the game. Saint Paul's Alisha Hardley had a monster game, scoring 13 points. She proved impossible to box out all night, as she grabbed a game-high 26 rebounds.
Chowan will play their final regular season game of the 2010-2011 season next Thursday, February 24th when they travel to Petersburg, VA to take on Virginia State University. Tip-off is set for 5:30pm. Saint Paul's will host Elizabeth City State University on Monday at 5:30pm.
